Accept Accept is the debut album from these German thrashers dating back to way back in 1979. I have to confess I’ve never really given this band their fair dues in listening to them (There is after all only 24 hours in a day) and for whatever reason this band never really made it into my playlist.
I was surprised to find out that the band had been around so long as I (for whatever reason) thought that “Balls to the wall” was their debut. So even this old metalhed has learned something new from creating this website! HaHa! Anway onto the music. This album really only features Udo Dirkschneider and Wolf Hoffmann that anyone except hardcore fans will remember, of course Wolf Hoffmann is still with the band to this day.
Musically this fits in quite well with what the Scorpions and Judas Priest were doing at the time. Much like the efforts from bands like Judas Priest and Motorhead this album is more of an embryonic version of what the band would become. This album is quite musically accomplished but nowhere near the level of “metal-ness” the band would later achieve. I previously stated that the first Motorhead and Priest albums weren’t really metal (In my opinion) but as far as the first albums I’m going to say this is pretty close to being there. There are definitely metal songs on this and a few prog rock type tracks.
The first track “Lady Lou” and “Tired of Me” are pretty heavy rockers with some great distortion This is Metal in my opinion. The heavy distortion and heavy drumming are present on a lot of these songs but there’s also a lot of more abstract songs like “Sea Winds” which kind of make the album feel a little disjointed. Not to say they’re bad songs, they’re actually great songs with some great musicianship, so it’s not a big complaint as hey I’d rather a varied album than something where every song blurs into each other.
As the album progresses there’s a lot of variation which threw me the first time I listened to this one, but on the second and third listen, I’ve really gotten to like it. There’s a lot of variation in the vocals too, like if you heard them blindfolded for the first time you wouldn’t pick certain songs as having the same singer. Have to hand it to main man Udo, he is a very talented and versatile singer! The lead guitar work is really good too, kind of reminds me of Ritchie Blackmore in some parts with some nice fast scale runs and tuneful work in other songs, almost Neo-classical in execution before that was really a thing the song “Glad to be alone” especially.
The song “Helldriver” kind of reminds me of Motorhead riff wise while the last song “Street Fighter” has kind of a punk vibe, and yet again a different vocal feel. Like I said, there’s some variation on this album haha!
From a historical perspective this is a great look into the past of this band. I really enjoyed it. Not sure how well it sold initially, but it did well enough to get the band on the gig circuit in the neighboring countries and hey, it helped establish a legacy for one of the longest running metal bands ever!
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